Exploring the Idea’s behind “Dreaming Vividly”

“Nothing happens unless first a dream.” Carl Sandburg

Have you ever been aware that you were dreaming?

Just for a moment?

Wondered why you were where you were?

Maybe you woke up from a dream, that was so cool, or crazy awesome / out there that you wanted to experience what was going to happen next.  Maybe you woke up shaky or sweating from the dream you were experiencing; taking a minute to realize that it was just a dream and no harm has come to you.

Or maybe you don”t or can’t remember your dreams at all. Either way, dreams have some sort of part in our daily activities.

The idea that we all dream, and that we all dream differently from one another was quite intriguing to me. I wanted to explore the idea a bit more with the content, medium, and arrangement of the story as a whole and each separate  section of the story too.  

I decided to start the story off with an overview of what our days may look like, sound like, feel like when we all get ready for our nightly nap. And with in that overview give the readers to “choose” the readers dreams.

I tried to create the sense of how dreams start and end abruptly. That you don’t necessarily remember how you got to the point in your dream that you’re experiencing at the moment. And not just that, but the how one thought can lead sometimes, randomly to another idea or topic. Thus, leading your subconscious mind into a different dream that connects / ties into the last one.

I played with the writing style of each piece. I incorporated poetry and story form, and a mix of the two together to create the idea that every person dreams differently and interacts differently with their dreams. Along those lines I tried to write using different forms of person as well. Personal/ I, third person and an overview/ fly on the wall.  

I did chose to not loop some of my dreams back to waking up, because I wanted my audience to come up with what might happen next, and/ or to contemplate whether  or not the dreamer came to or is stuck in the dream. I wanted my readers to create the next step in the dream and come up with his or her own conclusion of were they should end up.  

I did try to incorporate video and sound but was unsuccessful in trying to add them to enhance my story in some pieces. I did want to have a short video in the beginning before you come to the first text to try and set the mood. I also wanted to use sound clips with in the first and some other sections of the story to give the sense of experiencing the dream more than one dimensional. Hopefully I’ll be able to learn and come back and put those changes into my story.

There are several links through out this piece that can give more insight into dreams. And I created a playlist of some music that I think expresses a certain style of dreaming. Pretty cool stuff, please check out.  

Cynthia Jones